In this post, I will show you a quick and easy way to open Google Analytics page directly to the day view rather than the month view.

There are a couple of ways to open Google Analytics. Some webmasters, who have multiple websites, like to access the overview page at:

https://www.google.com/analytics/settings/home

On that page you get a snapshot of the activity on all of your websites. From there, you can click “View report” to open the report for the specific website.

Other webmasters like to open the website report view directly.

I personally use the overview page, so I have bookmarked the link above. But every time I open the URL, it defaults to the month view. To open the page to a certain date view, you have to bookmark a URL like this:

https://www.google.com/analytics/settings/home#dates=20100207-20100207

Notice the difference in this URL? There’s a “dates” range. 20100207 is simply 2010/02/07. I obviously can’t just bookmark this URL because it’ll always open the 7th of Feb ’10 view.

What if it were possible to create a bookmark with a URL that updates itself everyday? Sounds nifty, ha? Well, it turns out to be quite simple. It just needs a little bit of JavaScript code. I put it in this bookmarklet (?):

Google Analytics Day View Bookmarklet

Simply drag the link above to your bookmarks toolbar/folder, and whenever you want to open Google Analytics, you simply click on it. The bookmarklet will automatically set the “dates” range to yesterday (since Google Analytics is 24 hours late). It will open the overview page with the date set to yesterdays, and from there you can click on View report and it’ll open the report for yesterday (not the month)!

Note: you have to be logged in to your Google account for this to work.

That’s it. You’re done.

If you want me to create another bookmarklet to open the report view directly at single day view, post your request in the comments.

And as always, if you have a question, comment, or suggestion, I’d love to hear them!

Enjoy!

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So, exercise caution when installing new add-ons in the future, and for now do this:

Uninstall Unused Add-ons

You might have installed an add-on because you thought you’d need it. After a few days, you stopped using it/needing it. And now it just loads and consumes memory every time you launch and use Firefox.

Go to Tools then Add-ons to see a list of your installed add-ons. If you see add-ons that you installed but never used, uninstall them.

Disable Rarely-Used Add-ons

And there’s another class of add-ons. Those that you actually use, but only very occasionally. Keep these, but disable them, so that they don’t cost you memory and performance.

Go to your add-ons list again, scroll through the list to see which add-ons can be disabled without affecting your daily browsing. I bet you’ll find plenty.

Disable them and restart Firefox. When you need one of these add-ons for the occasional task, simply open the add-ons list again, activate the add-on, and restart Firefox.

I know, it’s not as convenient as having the add-on constantly enabled, but if you’re suffering from poor performance, this will help a lot.

Now you have a leaner, meaner Firefox that works just like before.

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The end results will be something like this. To link to an Amazon product, you would simply put

http://yourdomainname.com/amazon/[ASIN]

And this unique link of yours would forward to Amazon’s product and credit you for any sales. As you should’ve guessed, to link to a different product in Amazon’s catalog, you just change the ASIN number in the link above.

This should make it very convenient for you not only to link to Amazon, but also cloak your links effectively.

So, let me show you how to set this up…

First, you need to install the plugin Redirection. Through this plugin, you can setup automatic URL redirects.

Now, in your WordPress admin area, go to “Tools” and then “Redirection”.

You’ll see a section with the heading Add new redirection. Enter the following values in the form below it:

• In Source URL, enter /amazon/([^/]*)
• In Target URL, enter http://www.amazon.com/dp/$1/[Your Amazon Associate ID]
• Make sure that you check the box that says Regular Expression
• Click save, and you’re done!

Now, your blog will automatically direct visitors to Amazon products. All you have to do is supply the ASIN number like in the example above.

If you want more details or if you want to know how to do the same for your ClickBank links, check out my earlier article.

If you have any questions or if anything isn’t clear, feel free to ask in the comments.

I may create a WordPress plugin to make this even easier. Stay tuned for that.

Related posts:

1. Best Way to Organize and Cloak Affiliate Links in WordPress
2. Turn Keywords into Links with Word 2 Cash
3. Squeezing the SEO Juice Out of Your Affiliates

Navigate and Use the Computer without a Mouse

We’ve all accepted the use of an external mouse as a necessary inconvenience to use a computer. But there are still those of us who always ask why, always look to optimize and always look for the most efficient ways to do things. You’re probably one of those people and that’s why you’re tired of moving your hand back and forth between the home row and the mouse.

What if I told you that in the past 5 years, I’ve never had to lift my hands of off the keyboard. I used my computer, browsed and navigated entirely without a mouse…

No, I’m not a Linux commandline uber geek and I don’t memorize more keyboard shortcuts than an average user. I’m a normal Windows user and if Firefox wasn’t way too cool, I’d use Internet Explorer. But I refuse to use a computer or work with a dirty mouse in my palm all day long.

How desperate are people to exterminate mice?

Hardware companies are trying every day to invent new ways for users to navigate, browse and use the computer. Microsoft created a fancy all screen PC, Apple put a navigation pad on top of a mouse, and countless other companies have invented and reinvented the mouse in almost all imaginable ways.

This dude was too fed up with having to move his hand back and forth that he decided to saw off the numeric pad to reduce hand travel distance between the keyboard and mouse. Then you have popular geek blogs trying to speculate the future of the mouse, browsing, and computer navigation.

The problem with all these attempted solutions is that they don’t resolve the real inconvenience of computer navigation: unnecessary physical movement.

Unlike with these inventions, the solution that I’m talking about

• doesn’t require you to move your hand away from the keyboard home row
• it doesn’t require you to bend your wrist in awkward positions
• and in fact it doesn’t require you to move any part of your arm as you switch from typing to browsing, or even to using Photoshop.

It’s almost like you’re controlling the computer pointer telekinetically!

So, what is this great mouseless computer navigation solution?

Open your mind and shed your prejudice. This is the resurrection of an old promise that was tried and failed but was then perfected by one company.

xkcd.com

It is the best kept secret in mouseless computer usage. It’s the IBM TrackPoint.

The TrackPoint is a tricky device that’s surrounded by a lot of confusion:

• people don’t know what to call it
• early, first generation pointing sticks were not nearly as great as they are now
• the usability and the quality of the device vary greatly depending on the manufacturer
• the default settings that the device ships with are usually not the best
• it requires some getting used to
• people think to use this device, you must buy an IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad laptop

Let me clarify some of these points and show you how this device can free you from ever needing to touch a mouse again!

Not all pointing sticks are created equal

The standard name for the device is pointing stick. It’s not TrackPoint. TrackPoint is the trade-marked name that IBM gave to their version of the pointing stick.

The earliest models of laptops featured pointing sticks as their navigation device. It was the intuitive navigation solution for laptops.

Today, HP, Dell, Toshiba, and other laptop manufacturers all make laptops with pointing sticks. However, there’s one important thing to keep in mind. These pointing sticks don’t compare to IBM’s TrackPoint. IBM’s version is far superior. If you want to browse, navigate and use your computer without a mouse, forget about those other pointing sticks. Get an IBM/Lenovo one. And remember, you don’t have to buy a ThinkPad laptop for that. I’ll show you how in a sec.

The default settings for the TrackPoint usually suck

The concept of the modern pointing stick is that you control the computer pointer with minuscule physical movement. But there is one important setting for the TrackPoint that is not usually set optimally.

It’s the lightness of the stick.

When set to heavy more pressure on the TrackPoint is required to move the pointer, and light has the opposite effect. It’s best to have this set to lightest setting possible. To further decrease the required pressure, in the mouse settings for Windows OS, you can adjust the pointer speed under Motion settings of the mouse. Set the selector to the fastest setting possible.

Both the TrackPoint and the operating system’s mouse settings can be found in the Mouse dialog of the Control Panel of Windows OS.

Get used to the speed

When the proper settings are applied, the TrackPoint will respond to the slightest pressure. It becomes very sensitive. Some people with heavy fingers aren’t comfortable with this setting, but train yourself for a couple of minutes and you’ll get used to it.

You can use the TrackPoint to browse any computer mouselessly

I’m writing this post on a Sony VAIO, but I’m using the TrackPoint. How? This external keyboard.

ThinkPad UltraNav Keyboard

This newly released ThinkPad keyboard is based on ThinkPad’s latest and greatest laptop, the T400s. It’s very slim, yet sturdy.

This is an all in one computer browsing solution. It solves all the inconveniences of using an external mouse. Believe me, if you start using the TrackPoint, you’ll become a fan for life.

You can read more about the features and benefits of this device on Lenovo.com’s product page.

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If you currently have or plan to have plenty of affiliate links on your WordPress based website, you should have a way to easily track and manage these affiliate links. You want to know how many clicks each link received and you want to be able to edit and change the affiliate link without having to revisit and change old content.

And to keep your website clean and organized in the eyes of search engines, there are a few things that will need tweaking.

Here’s how I create, manage and cloak my affiliate links.

Using Redirection

Redirection is a WordPress plugin that is made by John Godley, who works for Automattic, the company behind WordPress. Redirection helps you manage your blog URLs. Using Redirection, you could create a link like http://msafi.com/gotogoogle/ and set that link to forward to http://google.com. Similarly, you could put all your affiliate forwarders in a virtual directory like:

• http://msafi.com/affiliate/product1/
• http://msafi.com/affiliate/product2/
• http://msafi.com/affiliate/product3/
• and so on…

Most people don’t use affiliate for the directory name, though. They use goto or visit. Or like on this website, I simply use a.

Redirection also allows you to group related URL redirections together. So, you could create a group, name it Affiliate Links and put all your affiliate links there.

Create an affiliate link in Redirection

Once you have Redirection installed

1. Click on Groups in the top left corner
2. At the bottom of the page, you’ll see Add Group. Enter Affiliate Links in the textbox, and click Add.
3. Click on your newly added group, Affiliate Links
4. In the source URL, put something like /visit/product-xyz/ (don’t include your domain name, http://ursite.com)
5. For Match, select URL only
6. For Action, select Redirect to URL
7. Leave Regular expression unchecked
8. In Target URL, put your affiliate link

That’s it. You’ve added your first affiliate link to Redirection.

Now whenever you want to link to Product XYZ, use http://ursite.com/visit/product-xyz/. It’s even easier to remember.

Redirection also gives you the number of hits each link received. So, if you’re putting your links in relevant places and getting huge volumes of clicks but maybe no sales, you’ll know something is going on…

Cool tip: get Redirection to automatically create ClickBank affiliate links for you!

If you promote products for ClickBank, here’s a cool tip that you’ll find very useful.

All of ClickBank’s links have the following structure

http://YourClickBankID.VendorClickBankID.hop.clickbank.net

You can tell Redirection to automatically fill in the VendorClickBankID field for you based on a value that you provide in your URL. Like:

http://ursite.com/cb/vendorx311/

automatically redirects to

http://yourClickBankID.vendorx311.hop.clickbank.net

and

http://ursite.com/cb/sumvendor2/

automatically redirects to

http://yourClickBankID.sumvendor2.hop.clickbank.net

…and so on…

Here’s how you do this in Redirection:

1. In the Source URL, enter /cb/([^/]*)
2. In Target URL, enter http://yourClickBankID.$1.hop.clickbank.net
3. Make sure Regular expression is checked
4. Match should be set to URL only
5. Action should be set to Redirect URL

I have done this on my website here at msafi.com. So, now I can simply give out a link like http://msafi.com/cb/4idiots/. This will redirect to http://mksafi.4idiots.clickbank.net, which is the landing sales page for the product sold by 4idiots ClickBank vendor. You can replace 4idiots with any ClickBank vendor ID and it will still work.

Pretty cool isn’t it?

Perhaps a similar trick can be done to automate link cloaking and management for Amazon and Commission Junction, but I’ll have to look into that.

For now, let’s look into optimizing your affiliate links so that Google will not have trouble with them…

Helping Google not trip over your affiliate links

Now that you have a convenient and easy way to create and organize affiliate links, I’m gonna show you how to make sure that Google will not discriminate against your blog as a result of affiliate links.

First, whenever you add an affiliate link as anchor text make sure that you include a rel=”nofollow” attribute in the anchor tag. That is

Bad: <a href=”http://ursite.com/visit/product-xyz/”>Product XYZ</a>

Good: <a href=”http://ursite.com/visit/product-xyz/” rel=”nofollow”>Product XYZ</a>

If you want to automate the creation of anchor text links in WordPress, check out the plugin I created: Word 2 Cash.

Second, use robots.txt to disallow Google (and other search engines) from accessing your virtual affiliate links URL directories. Your affiliate link directories are /visit/, /cb/ and whatever else you may have created.

In your robots.txt file add lines like:

Disallow: /visit/*
Disallow: /cb/*

Do the same for any other affiliate link directory you have.

This will help Google index your website in a clean way and hopefully minimize discrimination against your outbound links.

That’s all there is to it. You now have a great way to create and manage your affiliate links. Just one last thing before you go.

Reducing Redirection database size

Redirection keeps a record of every redirect it makes. It stores these records in your database. If you’re gonna be using the plugin the way I described in this post, your records can build up and take a lot of space pretty quickly. What you want to do is set the records to expire after some time, say 30 days. To do that:

1. go to Redirection’s admin page
2. Click on Options
3. In the Expire Logs field, enter 30 and click Save.

Aaaaaaand you’re done!

Related posts:

1. Automatically Create and Cloak Amazon Affiliate Links in WordPress
2. Squeezing the SEO Juice Out of Your Affiliates
3. Great Networks for Software Affiliates and Vendors

1. Email marketing providers regularly sniff domain names used by disposable email services and block them. For example, Aweber, GetResponse and MailChimp will all decline your sign up if you use a Mailinator domain.
2. Disposable email services are not always reliable. Many times emails sent to disposable email addresses will never reach the inbox

What if you could have a permanent, convenient, and reliable disposable email address that works anywhere? I’m gonna show you how. But first, let’s make sure we’re on the same page. Your disposable email should:

• Not obstruct or interfere with your regular email
• Be reliable and always work
• Be readily accessible and be only a couple of mouse clicks away
• Require none to very little maintenance

Cool?

Okay, here’s how you setup your disposable email.

Gmail is the most reliable and flexible free email service available today. In short, you’re gonna open a new Gmail account, i.e. fake.id@gmail.com. Forward all email from fake.id@gmail.com to your permanent inbox.

In your permanent inbox, create a filter to:

1. Label emails sent to fake.id@gmail.com “Disposable”
2. Skip the Inbox (Go directly to archive)

That’s it! Now you have a disposable email address that you can use every where.

If the instructions above aren’t enough, or if you want more tips on how to best setup your permanent disposable email. Read these detailed instructions…

Configuring a new Gmail account to receive disposable emails

Create your fake identity Gmail address at http://mail.google.com/mail/signup. Come up with a fake name. If you’re having a hard time thinking of one, go to IMDB.com, click through to some movie and view the cast. Pick a random name from there that you’ll easily remember.

Once your new Gmail account is created. Go to Settings, Forwarding and POP/IMAP, select Forward a copy of incoming mail to, and enter your permanent email address. From the drop down menu next to that, select Delete Gmail’s copy. You wanna delete this Gmail’s copy because you don’t want your disposable email account to fill up and run out of storage space.

Gmail's forward settings screen

That’s all you have to do in your disposable email account. Now go back to your permanent inbox to setup a filter to automate management of incoming disposable email.

Filtering incoming disposable emails

Now the fun part.

Depending on the client you use to manage your emails, the settings will be different. I use Gmail’s web interface to manage my email, so the instructions here will be specific to Gmail, but the ideas can be applied on any other email program.

Apply “Disposable” label to email sent to fake.id@gmail.com

Or if you use Outlook or other software that supports folders, create a designated disposable email folder and move incoming disposable emails to it.

On Gmail, you’d intercept all emails sent to your fake.id@gmail.com email by creating a filter and filling in your fake.id@gmail.com in the To: field.

Gmail first screen for creating a filter

Then, click Next Step. From the next screen, select Skip the Inbox (Archive it), Mark as read, and Apply the label: “Disposable”.

Gmail second screen for creating a filter

The reason you mark as read all incoming disposable email is because some clients (Gmail included) will show the count of unread items next to the label/folder. You don’t want to be distracted by unimportant email. And you skip the inbox to keep your disposable emails unobtrusive.

So, what do we have now?

Gmail Labels

From now on, whenever you’re unsure about giving out your email address, simply fill in fake.id@gmail.com. Check your “Disposable” email label/folder, you’ll see the emails sent to you there. These emails will never interfere with your other more important emails. Your fake.id Gmail account will never run out of storage because it doesn’t store anything. But you’ll have to occasionally empty your Disposable folder. With Gmail’s storage, you’ll probably have to do that once a year. Or if you’re obsessive like me, once every 2 hours.

That’s it. Now you have your own reliable and very convenient disposable email account. It will work where ever Gmail is accepted!

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